The present invention relates to a mounting apparatus for a steering wheel pad of a motorcar. The pad is adapted to be detachably mounted on the wheel. The engagement of the pad is ensured during the mounting operation.
Conventionally, there is a method of mounting a pad 1 on a wheel main body 2 with screws as shown in FIG. 20 or a method of providing a snap 4 made of resin on the side of the pad 1, mounting the snap 4 through the engagement with the engagement portion 5 provided on the side of the wheel main body 2 as shown in FIG. 21 and FIG. 22 as a method of mounting the pad on the steering wheel. However, in the assembling operation shown in FIG. 20, particularly a large-sized pad employs many screws so that it is not easy to be detached, thus resulting in an inferior operational assembly arrangement. In addition, the pad is likely to be disengaged in case of the screws becoming loose. Also, in the method shown in FIG. 21 the snap 4 is adapted to deflect in the X direction in the drawing less than in the other direction when sliding force is applied on the pad.
Also, conventionally with the horn switch mechanism being incorporated in the pad, the connectors 8 and 9 mounted respectively on the side of the pad 1 and on the side of the wheel main body 7 are required to be connected with each other, for conductivity to the horn switch 6 on the side of the pad 1 as shown in FIG. 23, before the engagement of the pad of the steering wheel. After the connection, the pad is engaged with the wheel with the screws, the resin snap or the like.
In this manner, the connectors have to be connected before the pad engagement and the pad and the wheel main body have to be engaged with the car normally in a separate step, which makes the operational property worse. When the pad and the wheel main body respectively move as a single member, the horn switch member may slip off. Also, when the engagement of the pad is performed through the screw opening, particularly when the threaded locations are so numerous, the engagement and disengagement is not easy, thus resulting in an inferior assembly arrangement. The pad is likely to be disengaged in case of the screws being loose. Also, in the case of the resin snap, when slide foce is applied upon the pad, the pad might be distorted and the engagement would become loose.
Furthermore, conventionally when the pad is brought on the steering wheel, the threading operation is adapted to be generally performed in a plurality of locations from the reverse face. Although the mounting operation is properly performed, the operational arrangement is so bad that the operation cannot be performed efficiently. Also, some pads are adapted to be mounted with one touch by the use of the resin snap, but the strength is lower so that the pad is likely to come loose because of impacts in the case of collision accidents.